The Woman’s Hour presenter Jane Garvey has already criticised the BBC’s plan: ‘I am not overwhelmed with enthusiasm as I feel have heard it all before.’
Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA

The BBC aims to have an equal number of male and female experts across its programmes by next year.

The broadcaster said it wanted to guarantee an equal gender split in the expert contributors it featured on its news, current affairs and topical programmes.

The corporation stressed it would continue to interview the relevant minister, official, or organisational representative appropriate to a story, and the aim was focused on the experts used to comment or report on events.

However, staff and campaigners have been less enthusiastic about the plan. The Woman’s Hour presenter Jane Garvey, a leading figure in the BBC Women group, said: “It sounds like a half-decent attempt but they are always doing this. It’s like the government – they are always announcing things that are new when they are not. I am not overwhelmed with enthusiasm as I feel have heard it all before.”

There were also ethnic and class diversity issues that the BBC needed to address, Garvey said. “This tackles one aspect, but not diversity in other areas. The BBC has to do loads more.”

Sophie Walker, the leader of the Women’s Equality party, welcomed the initiative but said having equal numbers of female and male experts should be expected and “not be presented as an innovation”.

She said: “I suspect this is being trumpeted now in order to divert attention away from the BBC’s still unresolved cases of pay discrimination against female employees. If this is not to be seen as another sleight of hand, the BBC must tackle the structured inequality throughout its own organisation.”

The BBC said that to enforce its gender split plan the gender balance of contributors would be monitored on a monthly basis. Plans to achieve a 50/50 gender balance have already been adopted by a number of BBC programmes.

The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One and Radio 4’s File on 4 have seen a rise of more than 10% in expert female contributors and reporters since starting to record their figures, the broadcaster said.

The BBC has disclosed a median gender pay gap of 9.3% and pledged to increase the proportion of women on screen, on air and in lead roles to 50% in 2020.

Tony Hall, the BBC’s director general, said: “This is a fantastic project that is already driving change. The results from programmes that have taken it up have been remarkable. Adopting it more widely will help transform the range of expert voices across the BBC.”